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Job 34:5-6
5 For Job ['Iyowb] hath said ['amar], I am righteous [tsadaq]: and God ['el] hath taken away [cuwr] my judgment [mishpat].
6 Should I lie [kazab] against my right [mishpat]? my wound [chets] is incurable ['anash] without transgression [pesha`]. KJV-Interlinear
5 'For Job has said, 'I am righteous, But God has taken away my right; 6 Should I lie concerning my right? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.' NASB
Even though Elihu has spoken some truthful concepts, here he departs from Jobs words and begins putting his (Elihu's) own words in Jobs mouth as though Job had spoken them. Elihu does this by making interpretations of what he has heard Job say, paraphrasing rather than quoting correctly.
But in so doing, Elihu will set himself up for a remarkable comparison between Job and Christ, and without realizing it. But more on that later.
Job made these similar comments in Job 13:18, 23:10-11, and 27:2. You can refer to those specific studies for the details of those verses.
Job has been under a siege of accusations from his three friends, that his suffering was an obvious indication and a result of his evil or sinful life.
Job has responded that this is not the case. Job has stated that he is a sinner and not perfect, but with respect to his relationship with God, he is righteous, perfect, and sinless as it were. But this is a result of his consistency in confession and in his maintaining, to the best of his ability, his spiritual life.
In verse six, Elihu puts words in Jobs mouth, words which Job did not say, nor even mean.
Elihu suggests that Jobs wounds, his suffering, is an incurable wound from a deep penetrating arrow. A wound which is fatal, and that this wound or suffering is not a result of sins because he is without sins. And Elihu's words here, placed in Jobs mouth, is a distortion of what Job has been saying throughout this entire conversation.
Even a person who has strong doctrinal understanding, can have flaws in his spiritual life because he heard the words but not their meaning. Therefore, Elihu's conclusions are in error.
Man is born physically alive but spiritually dead. In this state, man has 'forever life' for the soul never ceases to exist, but he has no relationship with God. That makes mans destiny one of forever separated from God. Since God is life, God is order, God is the sole support of all that exists, then when one lacks this relationship then ones life in eternity will be one of chaos, disorder, disaster, total aloneness, complete and horrible terror - forever.
God provides the gospel and that gives man the opportunity to terminate his eternal separation status.
But while spiritually dead, man by default is unrighteous.
When we believe in Christ, then all of our unrighteousness is erased. We become by default, righteous.
Did we change at all, in that moment of time when we believed in Christ? Did our body suddenly change? No. But God imputed His own righteousness as well as His justice into our account as it were.
We still are made of flesh and blood. We still commit sins. We still get angry and worry and do all the things we did before being saved. The only difference in our life now is that God has elevated us to a new plane of existence. He made us younger than a childs skin. He created us into a new spiritual species.
Not that we can see any of this, and certainly no one else can see the changes in us either, but Gods changes are spiritual and therefore undetectable by any human means.
Physically we have not changed, but spiritually we have been transformed into something totally new. Something which does not come from this earth, but from God alone.
We sin and we confess. God takes us into fellowship when we confess, because that is His procedure for training us in our spiritual life.
Those who agree with this plan, conform to it and comply with His rules. Those who disagree with Gods plan, refuse to conform to His rules. And that is the whole idea of Christianity verses any other system of belief.
Christ is the center piece of Christianity and a relationship with God. You either agree with this or you try making up your own rules.
Now, Job complied with Gods rules. Back in his day, the sacrifices were a teaching mechanism for instruction in Bible doctrine. He sinned, just as everyone did, and he made his confessional offerings. In fellowship, he was 'perfect,' 'righteous,' 'free' from sin as it were, because that is how the spiritual life works.
Job never stated that he was absolutely perfect, but only perfect as determined and defined by Gods rules concerning fellowship.
We all live in this devils world and as such will suffer the punishments (sufferings) of an enemy of God. And in a way, that is a good thing because we can then learn that being Gods enemy, or taking any position which is opposite of God, is a really bad place to exist.
So, salvation will not make you perfect as far as this world is concerned. Life goes on. Confessing your sins will not create a fortress of walls around you such that you will be safe from the sufferings of this world.
What these things do are to advance you in your spiritual life, which is preparation for the next life and serves to stabilize this current life. The world will hurl difficulties at you throughout your life, but with God in your life, the world can never defeat you. That is to say, the world can never separate you from God, from heaven, from your eternal relationship with God, so long as you have believed in Christ, of course.
But then, Elihu most likely knows all of this, and yet he slips away from sound doctrine and logic with his accusations of subjectively defining the meaning of Jobs words. So even Elihu is not perfect!
